When two conservationists — Grace (Sisi Stringer) and Ben (Harry Greenwood) — and a filmmaker named Bailey (Alexandra Park) travel deep into the Australian outback to track and record the animals displaced by the unprecedented bushfires of 2019 — climate change is real — they soon learn that they aren’t the hunters. They are the hunted.

Directed by Sean Lahiff (this is his first full-length film; he also works as an editor) and written by Shanti Gudgeon (the Wolf Creek TV series), Carnifex is about the unseen predator and brand new species that exists in the new world that has been created by the inferno that consumed Australia’s outback.

The Carnifex itself ends up being something like the Drop Bear, an Australian cryptid that is the size of a leopard or a large dog. Drop Bears supposedly hunt by ambushing from above and wait for hours to make a surprise kill. Supposedly, if you have a fork in your hair or vegemite or toothbrush behind your ears, they will leave you alone.

It looks way too cute when you finally see it. Is it a death koala? But anyways — the more it stays to the shadows, the better this movie is. I can say that for most monster movies, you know?

You can watch this on Tubi.